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Kunyongana, who had been a priest at Dzivarasekwa, a western suburb of Harare, was appointed Vicar General, pending the election of a bishop for the new church.

Kunyongana once served as Vicar General in the ACPZ until he was removed in 2010. The new church  is apparently drawing its support from parishioners who used to belong to the ACPZ and are resident in Dzivarasekwa.

Kunyongana broke away together with a handful of priests including Pastor Simeon Makove, who was recently reported to be resisting eviction in Rugare parish by Bishop Chad Gandiya‘s Church of Province of Central Africa.

This followed a Supreme Court ruling that conferred rights of property to the Bishop Gandiya’s faction.

The Anglican Reformed Church of Zimbabwe has already come up with a new uniform for both women and men.

The church is currently using a residential property in Dzivarasekwa as a place to worship.

Kunyongana recently said his Anglican Reformed Church of Zimbabwe would make far-reaching changes to the canons. One of them includes putting a limit to the tenure of a bishop. “The Anglican Reformed Church of Zimbabwe is a new church, an indigenous church that is community-oriented. The reformation of the church shall be based on the following values — embracing Catholicism fully, Pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, prophesy and visions,” said Kunyongana. 

“We believe that the term of office of a bishop should be limited to five years. And if re-elected for another term of five years, there shall be no term extension. Ten years in our acts and canon is enough to sit on the bishop’s chair,” he said.

The Anglican Church of the Province of Zimbabwe spokesperson, Reverend Admire Chisango, said they were neither moved nor surprised by the development. “We are, however, baffled by the fact that they are embracing charismatic and Pentecostal beliefs. Once you do that you cease to be an Anglican.”

Kunyongana condemned the use of the courts in resolving disputes. “The Anglican Reformed Church believes that matters, disputes and problems should not be taken to secular courts. We will deal with our problems in love, harmony, forgiveness and unity,” he said.

A source in the new church said there was confusion and uncertainty among parishioners by the long silence of Bishop Kunonga after the Supreme Court ruling.

“When the commander is silent when you are in a battle, that creates confusion as troops would not know whether he has been shot dead or whether he has surrendered. That is what happened in this case,” said the source. “Another problem is that the church was now spending its energy in the court instead of worshipping.”

Lawyer Jonathan Samukange filed a notice of appeal at the Supreme Court in December, challenging High Court Judge George Chiweshe’s refusal to deal with Kunonga’s latest application.

The former Bishop was seeking to block the deputy sheriff from evicting those occupying church buildings he had taken from the CPCA in the five years since CPCA excommunicated him. Judge Chiweshe said he had no jurisdiction to hear the matter because the Supreme Court had already ruled on it.

The Supreme Court ruled that Bishop Chad Gandiya was the rightful Bishop of Harare and the CPCA was granted ownership of all church properties. The CPCA has already taken back many of the buildings they lost to Kunonga, but the former Bishop refuses to let the case die.

As of mid-December 2012, Kunonga’s lawyers claimed the fresh application at the Supreme Court was from Kunonga-led Anglican Church of the Province of Zimbabwe (ACPZ), not Kunonga himself. 

Television personality Rebecca Chisamba (Photo: Bulawayo24)

“Maybe it’s a Christmas joke. I don’t actually know where this is coming from, but whichever way, this is not a pleasant one. These claims are just unfounded and are part of a destructive agenda,” said Mai Chisamba.

“These allegations have been doing the rounds since 2007 with some assertions that we were frequently spotted together at midnight. But even my husband can testify that at these alleged times I would be comfortably by his bedside, if not in his arms.”

The former teacher who has won numerous awards as a talk show host said they were only related to Bishop Kunonga through Gogo Chisamba, mother to her husband, whom she said was a close relative of Gogo Kunonga, Nolbert’s late mother.

Chisamba also said it was just unfortunate that Gogo Chisamba had passed on a month ago, saying her testimony would have put the matter to rest.

On her position in the Anglican Church squabbles, Mai Chisamba said, ”I am not a spokesperson of either side, but we all understand that Zimbabwe has freedom of worship and as an individual I am free to exercise that right. However, as a law-abiding citizen, I respect court processes and the laws of Zimbabwe.”

Responding to allegations that her alleged relationship with Kunonga saw her landing the post of a marriage officer in the Anglican church, Mai Chisamba said this was just imaginary as far as the Anglican Church doctrine was concerned.

“In the history of the Anglican Church, only priests can be marriage officers and there has never been a female priest in the Anglican Church the world over, unless I am the first one to change that doctrine of the Anglican Church,” she chuckled.

On reports that she was the best lady at the Kunongas’ wedding anniversary in 2007, Mai Chisamba said, “Actually, it was another bishop and his wife from the region who were the best man and best lady respectively,” she said.

The mother of five and grandmother of two said, as a social activist, she remained apolitical and that in the quest for a better Zimbabwean society, she is spurred by such tribulations.

Chisamba, the motherly figure who at one point scooped the Communicator of the Year Award said she believed in communication as the ultimate route to a better world and said her message was “peace only”. 

According to Bulawayo 24, Chisamba said this referring to Kunonga’s Anglican Church of the Province of Zimbabwe, “It is God who made a choice for me to go and worship there.”

When asked if she would accept Bishop Chad Gandiya‘s offer to return to the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa on condition of repentance, Mai Chisamba, who was deputy chairperson of the Mothers’ Union of the Kunong faction, said, “I go where I like. I also have respect for inter-denominational churches and I have been associated with the Methodists and Salvation Army.”

She admitted that there was need for action to ensure that the Anglican feud in Zimbabwe is resolved once and for all, a move she said would help to return sanity to the church.

“My wish is for the Anglican church members to unite so that things go smoothly. There might be differences but they need to be ironed out,” she said.

Bishop Chad Gandiya reportedly said the door was open for Dr Kunonga and his camp to join back the Anglican church. “But obviously we will follow church rules,” added Gandiya.

Speaking to journalists at a press conference Gandiya said schools that were in the hands of Kunonga were not spared by the rot that also affected hospitals.

Just like with other schools and hospitals, the Anglican Church lost Shirley Cripps, an orphanage to Kunonga who kicked out nuns some of whom had been running the place for more than 30 years.

Said Gandiya, “The children’s home is very dear to us, last week we received information that children were being abused. The matter was referred to the police and we are happy a person was arrested. There is widespread sexual abuse at the orphanage.”

While Anglicans across the country are on cloud nine celebrating the victory, Gandiya expressed concern with the manner in which Kunonga’s supporters are deserting premises, literally abandoning children.

“We are not there to fight anybody. if people are moving out they should inform us so as to ensure that children do not starve,” said Gandiya.

After leaving the Anglican Church, ostensibly over homosexuality, Kunonga went on to replace professionals at the institutions he had seized. Since then, standards have plummeted, with children at the Anglican Church-run schools complaining of abuse. The infrastructure is in a sorry state.

Officials say sexual abuses at Shirley Cripps are just a tip of the iceberg judging from the decadence of the moral fibre at institutions that had been in the hands of Kunonga.

According to The Herald, most of the churches in the Harare Diocese had been rented out to private colleges and crèches. The principal of Crystal College based at Anglican St Michael’s parish in Mbare, Mr Irvine Bhachisi, told the state-run newspaper the college’s future was uncertain following the Supreme Court ruling.

Education, Arts, Sports and Culture Minister David Coltart said his ministry will take stern measures against teachers who will be found to have abused children. “We are certainly going to investigate. We will support the Anglican Church. And they should give us any kind of allegation which they have so that we take it to the police commissioner general. If we find that teachers abused children then we will punish them severely,” said Coltart.

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Bishop Chad Gandiya (centre) smiling after he won the ownership of Anglican Church property case in Harare today. Today’s Supreme Court decision ended the six-year dispute between led by him Anglicans and Nolbert Kunonga’s Church of the Province of Zimbabwe. In the background: Dr Julius Makoni of Manicaland and Registrar of the Anglican Church, Michael Chigore, who served as lawyer representing Bishop Gandiya in the court. (Photo M. Chibaya)

The excommunicated Anglican bishop and head of the Church of the Province of Zimbabwe, Nolbert Kunonga, ultimately lost the dispute between him and the Church of the Province of Central Africa’s Bishop Chad Gandiya, at the Supreme Court today.

Whistles were blown and brows were wiped as elated Anglicans could not control their joy after five years of battling with Kunonga.

Kunonga had taken over schools and crèches, which he has run down since then. 

The High Court threw out five separate appeals by Kunonga’s Church of the Province of Zimbabwe leaving the court to determine the outstanding two decisive matters in his battle for control of Anglican church property.

The feud, largely centered on ownership of properties and characterised by violent clashes especially targeted at CPCA members, has resulted in numerous court cases and political interventions to no avail.

Justice Omerjee Aja delivered the judgment in a court filled to the brim with Anglicans who included minister of Constitution and Parliamentary Affairs Eric Matinenga.

The Supreme Court ruled that Kunonga had overblown the Anglican church dispute over homosexuality “which he elevated to the level of proposing it as a policy that there should be no association by members with homosexuals or anyone who sympathized with them.”

Kunonga withdrew from the church arguing falsely that the CPCA was in support of homosexuality and on August 4, 2007 Kunonga and his adherents “resolved to secede from the Church over the issue of
homosexuality.”

A parishioner, Amos Mudziwendiya, said Kunonga should vacate “as soon as possible.” He added, “We follow the laws of the country and actually this is notice for them to move out and immediately.”

Another parishioner Kudzai Gandiya of St Michael’s Mbare said Kunonga must vacate. “We want Kunonga and his people to vacate so that we can use our churches. We want them to move out like yesterday.” 

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In an interview Kunonga said he would not have taken the stance he took were it not because the MDC was threatening to “hand over land back to the whites.”

“Prior to [the emergence of] MDC you would never have heard of me being in politics. In all my 42 years as a priest, I never heard of what the MDC is saying,” said Kunonga.

Kunonga also accuses the MDC of being a foreign-sponsored party. 

The controversial preacher (who is also on the international  sanctions list) now claims that he is a prophet who cannot stand aside when things are being “messed around.”

Arguing before three Supreme Court judges, Luke Malaba, Vernanda Ziyambi and Yunus Omarjee, Kunonga’s lawyer Tawanda Kanengoni of Chikumbirike and Partners said the argument by the applicants (CPCA) that Kunonga seceded from the Anglican Church is a nullity on which legal arguments could not be based.

The CPCA which is being represented by advocates Adrian Phillip de Bourbon and Thabani Mpofu argues that there has been a secession (schism) in the Anglican Church with two distinct formations one led by Kunonga and the other led by the Archbishop of CPCA.

In 2007, Kunonga withdrew from the CPCA and founded a new independent Anglican Church of the Province of Zimbabwe where he became the archbishop.

However, this week the man who has grabbed the Anglican properties following a High Court ruling by Judge Ben Hlatshwayo in 2009 which gave him custodianship of the church’s properties, said he still submits to the dictates of the CPCA and is a mere bishop.

CPCA’s lawyer de Bourbon argued the reason why the church was in court was because Kunonga, whose support for President Robert Mugabe is an open secret, walked away from the church and is now presiding over the church properties clinging on Hlatswayo’s judgement which they now want the superior court to overturn.

Bishop Chad Gandiya is the incumbent bishop for the province of Harare a position that Kunonga now claims to hold.

Kunonga’s lawyer Kanengoni said that their argument is based on two letters: one written by Kunonga declaring he is leaving the church and the other one wrote by the CPCA accepting Kunonga’s stepping down.

Kanengoni said both letters were defective as they did not adhere to the Anglican Church constitution.
“Having established that what was done was a nullity, the High Court found that the status of this person [Kunonga] had not changed. This province of the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe is now defunct and Kunonga is no longer an archbishop. There is no Church of the Province of Zimbabwe,” said Kanengoni.

Justice Malaba reserved his ruling on the matter of property cases after hearing arguments from both parties.

The appeals were grouped following a directive by Chief Justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku, last year in a bid to finalise the dispute.

• The cases will be heard one after the other on the same day, but the parties are yet to agree on the order to be followed.
• The Supreme Court is expected to determine the following cases on October 22:
• Bishop Elson Madoda Jakazi and another versus The Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa and two others (SC118/10).
• Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa versus Diocesan Trustees of Harare (SC180/09).
•  Church of the Province of Central Africa versus Bishop Nolbert Kunonga and 10 others (SC130/10).
• Diocese of Harare versus Church of Central Africa and another (SC17/08).
• Nolbert Kunonga and another versus Church of the Province of Central Africa and three others (SC72/08).
• Nolbert Kunonga and other versus Church of Central Africa and three others (SC83/08).
• The Diocesan Trustees for the Diocese of Harare versus The Church of the Province of Central Africa (SC134/10).

Chief Justice Chidyausiku’s letter of September 29, 2011 stressed the need to end the property ownership wrangle once and for all.

The court is expected to determine the rightful owner of the property. It is also expected to decide on the legal consequences of the withdrawal or ex-communication of Archbishop Kunonga and his supporters from the Church of the Province of Central Africa in line with property ownership.

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They said Anglican members are being banned from some of their institutions especially Dangaremombe mission in Chivhu.

In a letter the bishops said that their members are being evicted from church buildings in Chivhu rural area. Early last month the police ordered all church buildings in Chivhu to come into possession of Kunonga. The Anglican Diocese of Masvingo in the Church of the Province of Central Africa forthwith have been banned from using these church buildings.

They said the Anglicans are clear about the ecclesiastical boundaries of the five Dioceses in Zimbabwe which were set by the Province at a properly constituted Synod in September 2001 whereby Kunonga was part of the Provincial Synod and a signatory to the formation of the Diocese of Masvingo and its boundaries. “All the judgements from our law courts are clear that the disputes over church properties are in the Diocese of Harare which ceased to have jurisdiction over Chivhu in September 2001, the month on which the Anglican Diocese of Masvingo was ecclesiastically formed, reads the letter.

“What Kunonga is using to hoodwink the police are the title deeds which he illegally used to surrender to the Diocese of Masvingo at its formation. We believe that this was a premeditated move in order to keep church properties as he is doing now. We are therefore appealing to the President of Zimbabwe, member of the Government of National Unity, the co-minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner General to intervene in this matter where innocent and peace loving worshippers are being driven out of their church buildings for no legitimate reason,” reads the letter.

On August 2, it was reported that the excommunicated Kunonga, an outspoken supporter of President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF claimed to have ‘taken over’ the Shearly Cripps Shrine along with all other church properties in the Masvingo Province.

The local police have enforced Kunonga’s claims despite repeated court orders ruling access to Anglican properties should be open to all. This claim follows over ten years of similar actions by Kunonga, including inciting violence against those attending services under the direction of Kunonga.
As with his actions over the Shearly Cripps Shrine, the police, ignoring court orders, have often acted in collusion with Kunonga and even tear-gassed church-goers.

Since 2008, Kunonga has seized over 90 properties belonging to the church, including the main cathedral in Harare, 19 primary and secondary schools and several orphanages around the country.

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